The present invention is directed to apparatuses for controlling operation of a recording device with a telephone instrument, and especially to apparatuses for controlling operation of a voice recorder device, such as a tape recorder, with a telephone instrument.
There are times when it is useful to record information received over a local loop by a telephone instrument or similar device. An example of such an occasion is a business conference call for which minutes are to be prepared. It is useful if the operation of the telephone instrument and the recording device can be coordinated in order to minimize the complexity of the recording effort and to maximize the quality of the recording. For example, using a microphone next to a telephone to pick up conversation introduces distortion, static and other recording degradations into the recorded conversation.
Telephone recorder controllers are known that permit connection among a local loop, a telephone instrument and a recording device. Such prior art telephone recorder controllers connect the local loop to the controller, and connect the recorder and phone to the controller. By connecting the local loop to the MIC jack of a recording device and connecting the controller to the REMOTE jack of the recording device, when the recording device was set to RECORD, the recorder would automatically start to record information received at the MIC jack when the telephone instrument was taken off hook.
Prior art controllers provide a voltage selection switch for establishing a proper impedance interface between the controller and the telephone instrument. Improper setting of the voltage selection switch would likely result in improper operation of the controller and the recording device. Such manual setting of a voltage selection switch introduces inconvenience and a source of human error to operation of the controller apparatus.
Recorder controllers generally rely upon DC power supply from a connected recording device. Accordingly, prior art controllers also provide a polarity selection switch to set the polarity of the output of the controller correctly vis-à-vis the polarity of the voltage presented by the recording device to the controller apparatus. Improper setting of the polarity selection switch would also likely result in improper operation of the controller and the recording device. Such manual setting of a polarity selection switch introduces further inconvenience and another source of human error to operation of the controller apparatus.
There is a need for a telephone recorder controller apparatus that operates automatically without requiring a user to set switches to establish operating parameters of the controller. Such an improved telephone recorder controller apparatus would operate more reliably because the element of human error would be reduced.